The moral imperative of money: what investments in science say about a nation’s priorities and ethical compass

The era dominated by the liberal world order, dating back to the end of World War II in 1945 and gaining unchallenged dominance with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, is now coming to an end. Yet the universal principles that the era personified in its rhetoric, and in the best of its actions, lives on. The global community has a moral obligation to continue on its journey to build a more equitable, secure and prosperous world for all of its citizens and must devise investment strategies that enable progress to both endure and accelerate. “The Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge,” issued at the conclusion of the inaugural World Conference on Science in 1999, contained a broad range of insights and recommendations that remain as significant today as they did 20 years ago. We would be wise to heed the challenges that the declaration conveyed by recognizing that the journey for equity in science, technology and innovation (STI) is by no means over and, in fact, remains as relevant now as it did then—both as an economic and social necessity and as a moral obligation. This paper seeks to explore how patterns of investment in STI have changed over the past 2 decades—and how they have not.